I do not like Rose and Gibson doubling up IQ and Toppin’s minutes. IQ is the fourth man off the bench, Toppin is the fifth. Three weeks ago IQ was angling for a starting spot, closing games, and seemed indispensable, now he seems like a total afterthought in the offense, mainly just lining up threes and forcing the occasional foray into the paint, usually culminating in a bad floater. This is not because IQ all of a sudden forgot how to play it’s because his role was greatly diminished and he is struggling to fit, all so we could make room for Rose to shoot 1-8.

When things go south at all even if it’s not Toppin’s fault he is immediately pulled because heaven forbid this team learn to overcome adversity with Randle on the bench. Thibs has to let both the young guys and the bench as a whole play through a rough patch. Pulling the plug on your bench after 2 minutes while still up 10 points against a bad team in a fairly meaningless game just shows how we cannot trust Thibs to not over-rely on his starters. There is no world in which Randle should play 40 minutes against the worst team in the NBA, in February when all but one player on our team is healthy and available.

It looks like the only teams tanking are MIN, CLE, DET, and maybe HOU. We’re gonna have to play better than this to make the top 10 in the EC. The Wiz, Magic and Bulls are all being competitive lately.

Rose and IQ were both awful again. I wonder how coach will handle that…

Play the starters 35 minutes each?